


Roommate Wanted

by teacuphuman



Series: 2016 Inception Kink Bingo [15]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, F/M, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 16:31:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7691659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teacuphuman/pseuds/teacuphuman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eames met Arthur online. SM seeking roommate for 2BR in Eastown District. NS/NP. Arthur was attractive, funny, and didn’t mind the smell of oil paint. Eames should have known it was too good to be true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Roommate Wanted

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sexual Frustration square on my Inception Kink Bingo card.
> 
> So this isn't traditional sexual frustration, it's more about pining and getting the timing right. I still really like it.

Eames met Arthur online.  **_SM seeking roommate for 2BR in Eastown District. NS/NP_ ** . Arthur was attractive, funny, and didn’t mind the smell of oil paint. Eames should have known it was too good to be true. 

 

First of all, Arthur was not single. He was seeing a girl Eames likes to call Blonde One. Blonde One had a cat she would leave at the apartment while she visited her home town. Twice a month. That cat pissed on Eames’ canvases, his bed, and his shoes. When he complained to Arthur, the fucker laughed. Apparently Blonde One was worth dealing with the cat from hell. 

 

Sadly, Arthur had a change of heart when he discovered his new leather messenger bag, scratchel beyond repair. The cat, and its human, were gone before the week was out. Arthur got drunk and waxed poetical about the raw emotion of experimental jazz. Eames got drunk and listened. Eames hates jazz. That’s the first clue.

 

Secondly, the apartment is a three bedroom, not a two. There’s an attic loft with one of those pull down ladders that Arthur claims he forgot to mention when they first met. Arthur claimed the space as a closet and still expected Eames to pay 50% of the rent. Arthur’s kind of a dick, but Eames still agrees to pay half. That‘s the second clue.

 

The apartment is in the Eastown District, so that’s something. But the hot water lasts about ten minutes in the morning, and doesn’t return until dinner time. There’s no laundry and it’s a sixth floor walkup. Eames wants to die in the summer and complains nonstop through the winter. Fall isn’t bad, and his ass looks fantastic. He and Arthur race each other up the narrow staircase and Eames always lets him win because he can’t beat the view. That’s the third clue.

 

By spring Arthur’s busy being not-single again. Blonde Two might be small, but she’s a screamer. They only last three months and Eames spends a lot of nights on the fire escape, chain smoking. Sometimes Arthur comes out to join him, reeking of sex and the cedar balls he keeps in his underwear drawer. It makes Eames nauseous, but he lights two cigarettes and hands one over, counting the minutes before Blonde Two calls Arthur back in. That’s the fourth clue, and Eames is slowly getting it.

 

They throw a party for the building to apologize for Blonde Two’s vocal exercises, and Arthur disappears into his room with the guy in 3B. Eames’ friends give him sympathetic looks and refresh his glass. He wonders if he’s always been this transparent. Eames is eating cereal in his boxers when 3B does his walk of shame. Eames gives him a nod and renames him Red One in his head. When Arthur stumbles out of his room he looks so well fucked Eames abandons his breakfast and goes in search of a newspaper. He doesn’t need anymore clues. He sees it now.

 

Arthur pitches a fit when Eames tells him he’s looking for something further from downtown. Without Eames’ input, he makes a list of pros and cons, lecturing Eames on each column in turn. Eames sips his beer and tunes him out. He has an appointment to see a place in Doncaster in the morning. Arthur tells him to fuck off when Eames tells him, but he’s dressed and ready to go before Eames is. That should have been the first clue.

 

Arthur finds fault with every place they see. Too dark, too bright, too few outlets. Most of his complaints are valid, and Eames scratches another on off the list. Red One doesn’t come around again, and Arthur starts spending more evenings in, making dinner and enduring Eames’ reality television addiction. That should have been the second clue.

 

Eames is determined to be gone by the time the summer heat kicks in. When October rolls around and Arthur insists they throw a halloween party, Eames senses he’s being manipulated. He comes home one afternoon to Arthur’s entire wardrobe scattered around the living room. For a minute Eames thinks they’ve been ransacked, but Arthur appears, saying he’s been meaning to clear out some things, and would Eames like to take over the attic room for his painting. Eames is a bit quicker this time around and sees the pattern forming.

 

Eames mentions an apartment viewing late Sunday night and by Monday morning Arthur’s rearranged his schedule and researched the building. He has a laundry list of issues with the neighbourhood and the landlord. Oh a Thursday, Eames goes on a blind date, coming home to an irritable Arthur scrubbing out the fridge. The next morning he sits next to Eames on the couch and doesn’t say a word until Eames asks if he wants to go out for dinner, or order in.

 

Arthur frowns at Eames for a minute before he kisses him. Eames asks him what took him so long and laughs when Arthur tackles him to the floor. They order in and chain smoke on the fire escape, talking about jazz and reality tv. When they go to bed they go together, and when Eames wakes beside him in the morning, Arthur tries to barter to get his closet back. Eames rolls over him and tells him to fuck off.

  
  



End file.
